Opinions of Monday, 6 March 2023

Columnist: Lawrence Appiah-Osei

Is it about John Mahama or Ghana?

Former president of Ghana, John Dramani  Mahama Former president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama

Quickly the NPP wants Ghanaians to believe that election 2024 is about John Mahama and not Ghana. They used and succeeded with that dirty trick in 2016 and they want to use it again. They said in 2016 that John Mahama has been in power for eight years and needs to go.

Today, they are saying John Mahama will be president for only four years, so what can he do in four years. They talk as if after four years of Mahama’s Presidency, Ghana and NDC will come to an end. The first foolish talk from the NPP before election 2024. You watch, more will follow.

This is why immediately John Mahama picked his form to run as a candidate, the whole NPP machinery held a press conference to tell Ghanaians that Mahama presided over dumsor for five years, and so he cannot clean up the mess NPP will leave behind.

To the NPP, solving Ghana’s problems is not their priority anymore. What they are thinking of is elections 2024 and John Mahama. They are not even worried that they don’t have a date for their parliamentary and presidential primaries.

My problem with the NPP is that they seem not to know the gravity of the mess they have created. They don’t know that Ghana is with the IMF and they have asked Germany to go and beg China to forgive us of our debts, else we can’t pass the IMF bailout.

The NPP don’t know that their Finance Minister has told us that if we don’t get the debt forgiveness from China within 30 days, Ghana’s economy, which has already collapsed, will collapse. With this huge problem at hand, they held a press conference and Mahama was their topic.

In 2017 when John Mahama was leaving office, inflation was 15%, today it is 54%; Debt to GDP was 54%, today it is 104%; a cedi was GHC 4.2 to a dollar, today it is GHC14; a gallon of petrol was GHC 14, today a gallon of petrol is GHC 63; the public debt in 2017 was GHC 122 billion, today it is almost GHC 600 billion. In 2017, our credit rating with Fitch, Moody and S&P was B+, today our rating is D+++ (junk/useless/trash)

With these comparisons above, if you hold a press conference and tell Ghanaians that John Mahama can’t clean the mess the NPP will leave behind, then who would?

Would that be Dr. Bawumiah, Alan Kyeremanteng or which of their presidential candidates? Should we vote for them to continue with the mess or what?

What do these NPP take Ghanaians for? Do they see us as people who wash our faces upwards?

All those they cut their hair during the debt exchange program will be waiting for them in 2024.

Mahama reba.